Into Fate’s Open Arms
by Muni Koshi
Summary: Yuusuke's leaving Keiko again, but this time, she has to object. One shot in her POV. Fluff warning.


Hey it's Muni here! Um, I started this fic at 4:00 on a lonely Saturday so if it's bad, I have an excuse. It's a simple POV fic with not much dialogue. So, well, here goes nothing. Really. x.X;  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own YYH, I wish. And I would like to say that then end two paragraphs, most of the words come from a song from the Broadway play Wicked. I thought it fit very well. It's called For Good. I don't own that either. Please R&R and no flames please! Hope you like!  
  
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Into Fate's Open Arms  
  
  
  
I sigh as I watch you leave me again. Why do you always go without telling me why? Sure you don't tell Atsuko, but you don't tell her anything. You tell me I worry too much, but I have my reasons. Sure, maybe I'm a worry wart. Say that if you want, but I have my reasons.  
  
Last time you left me, it was to go to some tournament. I got so worried I confronted Botan-chan and she ended up bringing me there. It turned out you were there because of some hideous man named Toguro whom you had fought before. He forced you into it by threatening me and everyone else that meant something to you.  
  
Is that all I am anymore? A simple threat? Just a life waiting to be taken away? A shell? Well, sorry to break it to you, but there's a soul inside this shell, and it doesn't like being ignored.   
  
Before, when we were little, arguments over my ball or a race to the playground were the epitome of our worries. Feelings were hurt, mean words were exchanged, but we never took it too far. Now, we're both growing up and need some extra attention. Especially me. I don't like telling you how I feel to just be put down like a child. Every time I tell you how I feel you grin and tell me my worries are in vain.  
  
The wind ruffles my hair and I am reminded of the time my family nearly moved away. We were both ten years old. It was autumn...like it is now. Remember Yuusuke? Around seven, you and I were playing outside, by the river and my parents called me home for dinner. I told you I'd be back when I was done eating. It's still so vivid...  
  
I sat down happily at the table and began to eat with my fingers, getting grease and rice all over their shapely nails. Then I realized I was the only one eating. I looked up at my father. That was when the bomb dropped.   
  
"Keiko, sweetheart...we..wanted to tell you, that we may have to move to China soon...."  
  
Those words destroyed my life. I ran, crying, upstairs where I sat in my room and cried my eyes out, but soon, your voice filled the empty spaces.  
  
"Keiko? Are you alright?" You climbed through my window and held me, saying nothing, for an hour. You didn't need to say anything. Your presence was enough to comfort me.  
  
I never did move, but something tells me in the bottom of my heart that you would've found a way to be with me regardless.  
  
Then there was the time you left me at the movie theater. When it first happened, I thought I'd never forgive you, but now I know. My immature and preteen actions that day have been replaced with a love-sick teenage atmosphere. I knew you'd come back. It took you a while, but you came back to me like a curious cat.   
  
Then again, sometimes I am the one with the strange reactions. For instance, when you were dead and I was asked on a date by a very handsome boy. I turned him down because I knew you'd be back. I just knew. Call it a girl's heart.  
  
Wait. Yuusuke. The aching in my lower stomach is growing. It seems to know you're going and it knows you won't come back alive.   
  
Suddenly, I feel my legs racing towards you, tears running wildly down my face. I run to you, crying your name and you turn with cat-like grace. You whisper my name, a heavenly sound and with a look of concern on your angelic face, you envelope me in your warm embrace. I feel safe with you. Your hands are hot on my back and the weight of your face atop my head does not bother me. I know you're talking but I cannot hear you anymore. You place your fingers under my chin and tilt my face up into yours. I see your lips form my name several times but I simply do not hear the familiar sound of it.  
  
My eyes are brimming over with tears and you drop your bag next to us, and sit pulling me onto your lap. I feel like a child in her father's arms and for the first time in my life, I like it. Out of the corners of my eyes, I can see water forming in your eyes as well. I know you don't want to go, but your job does not permit quitting. You are important. To the world. And then I understand.  
  
You have never been important to anyone in your life. And out of the blue, you are responsible for millions, even billions of people, most of whom you don't know. I can now recognize the fear in your eyes. It gives me a chill and reminds me of my own fear, the fear I cannot control. The fear that I've always hated myself for possessing.  
  
Then, almost immediately I have a thought that swallows all others.What if you never return? I've already had to say goodbye once and nearly watched you die twice. It's something I never want to happen again. Who are your opponents this time Yuusuke? Need I worry? If I let you go, will I hear your smart laugh, your snide remarks, your teasing? Will I ever look into your beautiful brown eyes again? I daydream through the setting sun, long after you are gone, but somehow I still feel your strong arms in a loving circle around me. I stand, preparing to go home and the sun winks at me before descending into space. And something my mother told me comes to my mind.  
  
She said that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn. And we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them, and we help them in return. Right now, as I stand waiting to see your shadow over the hill, I am reminded of a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun. Or a stream that meets a boulder, halfway through the wood.  
  
It may well be that we'll never meet again in this lifetime. So let me say before we part, so much of me is made of what I learned from you. You'll be with me, like a hand print on my heart, and now whatever way our stories end, I know you've rewritten my chapters. By being my friend. Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea. Like a seed dropped by a sky bird in a distant wood. Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you, I have been changed for good.  
  
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~Owari~ 


End file.
